I am currently 61 years old and have about 30 years of construction management experience and about 30 years of having a real estate broker license in state of Texas. 

You can invest in a good or bad two family in RI or Mass equally, but having a a 20 minute vs. 1 hour daily commute, or being able to see family multiple times a week vs once or twice a month can be pretty important.So I would say choose between those areas first, then when you're ready to start analyzing specific properties to see if you want to put offers in on any of them, there are a lot of resources here on Bigger Pockets for learning to analyze properties, such as the rental property buy and hold calculator.I don't do a lot of owner occupied purchases for myself at this point so the Conventional 97 is new to me also (and has only been around since Dec 2014) but it looks like there are many pages comparing it to FHA so I'd recommend just spending the time to research the differences a bit.You'd want to make sure that if you use a mortgage broker s/he is licensed in RI and Mass (if you still haven't decided between the two), and I'd say to make sure when you are comparing the two options that you consider all the monthly costs (e.g., including private mortgage insurance payments in addition to the regular monthly principal/interest payment) and that you consider all the up-front costs.

These people are your customers, not your friends.

Obviously, websites and broker leads I cannot charge for, nor should others.

Just figured I would share my thoughts from the other post here as well, had a bad run-in with John himself and I am not happy about how he treated me as a customer.......I had to search high and low to talk to someone after I purchased the product.

I am getting the loan from a broker nrl mortgage.

Quick closings, good customer service, low fees, interest only payments and desktop appraisals in many cases.

I am looking for advice on building a team and structuring from folks that have had PM and Sales going in the same office:1) Do you have a Managing Broker for sales and a Leasing Manager?

And without the potential sales pitch from the broker in charge.

., realtors, brokers, contractors, property managers" and ask for recommendations.Happy Hunting!